


Northward on Vejle Landevej

by Elleth



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: F/F, Huddling For Warmth, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sharing Body Heat, Sick Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-11-12 22:12:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11171127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elleth/pseuds/Elleth
Summary: One night on the trek to the pickup spot, Sigrun and Tuuri shelter in a car husk.





	Northward on Vejle Landevej

Walking was starting to wear on Sigrun, Tuuri could tell. 

Her own feet hurt, and the straps of her pack chafed deeper into her shoulders each day, especially on the tender new skin over the spot of the bite. That was nothing compared to the toll the march was taking on Sigrun.

The landscape north along Vejle Landevej was all rolling fields - at least they had been, once - leafless trees, snow and withered road grit that crunched under their boots. Under the wide sky that sometimes looked like it was bringing the clouds down right on their heads, nothing moved. Birds went south for the winter, after all, and anything else that might be living there… was better to not encounter. Still, Sigrun tensed up every time scattered farmhouses or the husks of villages appeared on the horizon, and her hand went to the knife on her belt, shaking with the effort. Mikkel usually insisted on a rest stop once they found a spot to shelter in when he noticed, even if Sigrun hadn't called for a halt. 

That evening - the third or fourth, Tuuri wasn't sure any longer - they made camp in a series of car husks on the road. Any other shelter would have meant a detour of several kilometers. That was a delay they couldn't afford and that Sigrun wouldn't allow, yelling at Mikkel until she was hoarse and shaking where she stood, and he backed down. Still, it was Sigrun who was swaying on her feet by then, and Tuuri wondered how much of her temper had been exhaustion getting the better of her.

They made do with what they could find on the spot. Mikkel pitched the tent with its rune-paintings for Reynir and set up the camping cooker in a nook between the cars, shielding the flame from sight with his body as he warmed up a ration of gruel. They ate listlessly; it was little enough that even Sigrun managed to finish her portion before taking the proffered dose of medication from Mikkel. They wouldn't be making a fire - too many open lines of sight, too much risk of attracting trolls or beasts. 

At least the cars had been abandoned, and no one had died in them. With similarly rune-endowed blankets hung over the shattered windows for at least a little protection from the cold and to keep the ghosts at bay, Tuuri found herself sharing a the remnants of a car with Sigrun, who was stuffing a blanket over the rusted springs protruding out of the backseat to lay her sleeping bag on. 

She made it eventually, but Sigrun was grunting with the effort of building her bed; her face had gone white trying to wrestle the unwieldy sleeping bag from its plastic casing. 

"Hey… let me do that?" Tuuri offered after a moment, peeling herself out of the cocoon she'd made out of her own blankets and sleeping bag on the driver's seat, and Sigrun looked up from her work. Her eyes were sharp even in the dim interior of the car, as if she'd need to make up for her lack of energy. 

"Y-your arm needs rest, especially after carrying your things all day," Tuuri said. 

"It's fine, Fuzzy-head. I'm managing. You stay wrapped up right where you are, I'm not the one who's - nevermind. Get some rest, I want to get walking again the moment the sun's up."

As if to prove her point, Sigrun crawled into her makeshift bed, her back to Tuuri. As the sun went down and darkness settled, Tuuri heard the light pat-pat-pat of Lalli's steps around their camp on guard; all else was silence, too quiet for her to fall asleep easily. She could barely make out anything in the car, but some moonlight falling in cold slivers through gaps in the blankets reflected shivering off the orange patch on Sigrun's shoulder. 

Shivering. Sigrun was shivering like a leaf. 

"Sigrun?" Tuuri murmured. No answer, though it seemed that her body stilled, and her muscles locked to stop the movement. 

"I know you're awake." 

"'m not. Go back to sleep."

"I wasn't. Should I get Mikkel?" 

"Nothing he can do, except naked cuddling to warm me up proper, and honest, I'd rather not. Not sure he'd even fit in here, if I _wanted_ to naked-cuddle him."

The shivering started up again. Tuuri wormed out of her nest and squeezed through the gap in between the front seats. Her every muscle protested after the day's abuse, and she wrinkled her nose at the dust her movements were stirring up, but she sat on a spot of backseat that Sigrun didn't occupy and reached to slip her fingers over Sigrun's forehead. 

They came away clammy and coated with cold sweat. Sigrun tensed under her, and Tuuri resisted the impulse to just wipe them off somewhere. 

"I'm getting Mikkel."

"You're getting Mikkel, you're sleeping in a ditch," Sigrun snarled. "How about you make yourself useful?" It took a moment to work open the zipper of her sleeping bag and shift to make room. Silence settled, punctuated only by the chattering of Sigrun's teeth as cold air rushed in and warmth drained out. 

"Don't be a fuzzy brain, short stuff!" she managed when Tuuri just gawked. "I'm still not cuddling Mikkel, but you could just fit in. Just keep your clothes on."

"I - o-okay?" Some effort saw her squeezing in alongside Sigrun. They didn't fit unless Tuuri shifted down to lay her head against Sigrun's shoulder, her boobs pressed uncomfortably against Sigrun's ribcage and her arms went around over and under her. A spring poked into her hip through the sleeping bag.

It was too awkward and uncomfortable to be romantic, but somewhere in the back of her brain, part of Tuuri was quietly freaking out and wondering if Sigrun knew, and whether this was… well. Anything like _that_. But if it was, with the others outside somewhere nearby, Sigrun fighting her infection, and Tuuri's own nagging fears at the back of her mind, neither of them was really in the mood or shape to follow up on it. 

After a while, when Tuuri's body threatened to become numb and painful in several places at once, Sigrun's shivering subsided slowly. It was uncomfortably warm in the shared sleeping bag by then with two bodies providing heat, and Sigrun's fever still was going strong. Tuuri wouldn't have been surprised to see her glow like an ember. 

"Some vacation this is," Sigrun muttered. Her lips were brushing over the top of Tuuri's hair in a way that made Tuuri's breath hiccup out, just short of stopping for a moment. "A trek is nothing to sneeze at usually, raid some old towns in the mountains or down by the fjords. Take out some troll nests, all that. But sometimes it's not all it's cracked up to be. This isn't." 

"Sorry," Tuuri breathed. "Sorry I couldn't fix the tank," she added miserably. "And that it all went wrong." 

"Psh. We're not dead yet," Sigrun scoffed, but her voice lacked the bite it sometimes had. "Grab some sleep before you start blubbering on me. We've got more walking ahead of us tomorrow. More ruins, more snow. More quiet if we get really lucky." 

"I… think I liked them at first," Tuuri added. "Copenhagen was pretty, I'd never seen so many buildings in one place before. It was all so exciting, learning about the old world! It's not anymore, now. I just want to go home." 

As if on cue, the chafed spots on her shoulder started itching, as if to tell her no. But as long as they were only chafed skin - Mikkel would give her an update in the morning - she was okay. Tuuri shifted around so her shoulder rubbed against the material of the sleeping bag. It wasn't much use, so she stopped and tried to lie still under the raised-eyebrow look Sigrun was levelling down at her. 

"Sure do too," Sigrun agreed when Tuuri lay still again. "A few more days and all we gotta do is wait for the ship. Don't you make me go alone." 

"We'll go together," Tuuri mumbled. "One way or the other, right?" 

Sigrun pressed her lips on Tuuri's forehead, and even chapped and papery as they were, Tuuri relished the touch. "Right, Smarty-Pants. But all we're going to right now is to sleep. And then walking in the morning. No use guessing ahead, that'll just get morale down." 

"Okay." With a sigh, Tuuri settled deeper into the sleeping bag, a fraction more comfortable against Sigrun, and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep to pull her under.


End file.
